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In
this claim, the agency moved a policy covering the bottling
operations of their client from one carrier to another.
The replacement policy contained a Designated Premises
endorsement limiting General Liability exposure to the
insured premises; this endorsement was not on the previous
policy. During an outing sponsored by the client, an employee
was severely injured by another employee on a jet ski.
The new carrier denied the claim based on the Designated
Premises endorsement. The injured employee then sued the
agency’s client, securing a verdict for $622,000.
The client then sued the agent for the amount of the judgment,
plus interest and defense costs, claiming they were not
informed of the change in coverage. The agent admits he
did not inform his client of the change. In the defense
of the insured, counsel argued that a statutory Stop-Gap
Employer’s Liability endorsement would have applied
to the loss and provided coverage and after the trial court
disagreed, the matter was appealed to the State Court of
Appeals. The Court of Appeals affirmed the lower Court’s
decision, stating that the designated premises endorsement
also applied to the Stop-Gap endorsement, meaning there
was no coverage available for the loss. The matter was
settled for $1,000,000 against the agent.
Lesson: An appropriate lesson to learn from this E&O claim is
that when switching coverage from one carrier to another,
evaluate the differences and bring these differences to the
attention of the client, asking them to acknowledge that
the differences were explained.
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